Obama Obama Obama Obama!

It is OBAMA MANIA around here!!! When someone wants to get my attention on the streets, they say, "Obrino" or "white girl," and if that doesn't work, they yell "Obama" and then "Misses Obama!" It is so funny! As often the only American amongst a group of other foreigners, i.e. from Taiwan, England, Sweden, Norway, etc., it is even more amusing to hear them assume our patriotism.

Yesterday (Friday evening), we planned to go to Kokrobite, a beach about an hour and a half west of Accra. A friend of Molly, the director of the Global Autism Project, is a drummer and besides helping start a music/drum-making program at the Autism center, he was performing at a big show Friday night. We also wanted to get out of Accra to be relieved from all the Obama madness, like road closings, traffic, lots of people, etc. We made it to this CRAZY bus station, called Keneshie, even with most of the roads being closed between our station and Keneshie, and when we go there, the lines for the tro trotro to Kokrobite were soooooooooo long, and it was raining! When one trotro came up, it filled up quickly of course, and someone got on out of line and there was a fist fight ON the trotro! After that, we decided to try to get a cab, and then with the rain and traffic and road closings, we ended up staying in Accra.

I invited two Ghanain friends from the Autism Center to join us in our adventure to Kokrobite, and they actually found us at the bus station! We all went back to the Ikando house together and jammed out to Bob Marley songs and other reggae, some original, on guitars, drums, and flute. The people here, for some reason, feel so connected to Reggae and Rastafari and it seems so authentic, even though we are in Africa, not Jamaica! Their voices and style are just amazing, and so much fun to jam with.

So, for Friday night, we went out to "dinner" at Lizzy's, a dancing place in Osu, the area with restaurants and music venues, and had street food (Beef Kabobs and rice) and lots of craaaaaaazy dancing with many many eager Ghanains. I do not think I have ever been that sought after in my life. So many ghanain men, and so few women, and they loved the foreign ones, haah. It was really great to have our two friends, Richard and Roland, with us!

Roland, who has been working at the Autism Center for 3 years, told us about his dad's fishing boat. He said he would take us the next day to go out on it. So, this morning, at 8am he texted saying he was ready. After the others at the Ikando house heard about this opportunity, so many people wanted to go, so, we had 8 people plus Roland and Richard! Me and one other from America, two from Sweden, two from England, one from Taiwan, and one from France.

We met up (despite an approximately two hour delay in meeting each other because of numerous road blocks due to Obama Mania). We walked for a while to a trotro station and took the trotro to Accra Central, and then walked to Jamestown, where the area that Roland's family lives on the beach.

Jamestown was full of people in small shacks and lots of kids playing soccer in dirt "fields" all over. Everywhere we walked large groups of children in unison yelled, in their Ghanain accents, "Hello! How are you!"

We walked down to the beach, NOT a touristy or luxurious beach location, but the fishing, local living area. Through some public toileting areas, dead fish, and lengths of canoes, we got to the water and hung out with some of Roland's friends (among the naked children swimming in the ocean, haha!)

After hanging out with the fisherman for a while, we walked up a few steps to this area where Roland's friends have tons of drums and flutes, etc, and had a random breakout HUGE drum circle! So many people came and joined and sang and danced and drummed. Amazing harmonies and rythms. Then, they started a spontaneous dance lesson for our group. They coreogrpahed a whole dance for us, and we had so much fun! Our "instructors" want us to go to the auditions for TV Africa in two weeks with our dance, HAHA. We will let you know if we get on tv. (I think I may be on tv from the Obama afterparty tonight.)

Next, we walked up to Roland's mom's house, where they cooked Banku for us. Banku is a traditional African dish. It consists of Maize in a ball, hot, and then fish over a "sauce" of onions, tomatoes, peppers, etc. The fish is literally a fish, a whole fish, sitting on top of the "sauce," and you dip the Banku balls in with it and mush it and eat it with your fingers. It was actually really really good!!

We played with the children in Jamestown, jump rope and dancing/clapping games, and by 5:30, we walked to a beach restaurant, got some cold drinks, and watched the sunset by the water. Then, we came back to Osu for some "fast food" dinner and dancing.

After that, we went to the OBAMA AFTERPARTY!! No one knew what it would be like, but a few people from the house had heard of it going on. We went back to the house for a moment to change and clean up (although there is still no flowing water), and put on nice clothes because we heard it may be a "cocktail" type of affair. We found our way there and it was SO COOL. It was right across from the U.S. Embassy, at the W.E.B. DuBois center. It was "high class" Ghanaian people, and some foreigners. When we got there, our group tore up the dance floor and had such a great time with all of the people and the MANY different live performers. They had everything from Reggae to Michael Jackson tributes. Everyone was dressed really nice, and it was a gorgeous, manicured outdoor place. We were the last ones to leave, staying after it ended dancing with the dj's and all the people still there!

It was so much fun to go around with our group. What an awesome conglomeration of cool, open-minded, fun-loving people from all over the world. Even though everyone assumes that we are all American when we walk by and yell "Obama" to all of us, haha!


All around there are t-shirts, songs, tapestries, everything that says "Obama" and has the American Flag mixed with the flag of Ghana.


Imagine dancing all night last night with crazy Ghanaian reggae dancers, then traveling today to various parts of Accra, the dirty beach, dancing in the hot sun, running around with children, then going out dancing two more times at night soaking wet in a thin sundress, and then coming back and there is no water! YES, we are all living like that together. But thank goodness for babywipes! I am so glad I threw that extra large pack in (thanks Mom and Dad for convincing me). No worries, because tomorrow I am joining the two Swedish girls in their project going to the slums. We are doing well and staying well and having a great time.